Try to think of oUF layouts as what they are ... a layout, a style, an appearance. You don't need to know about code, unless you want to add functionality. All you need to know is how to place stuff and that is probably the easiest thing to learn. Even commonly used tags are part of ouf, just take a look at the elements folder and into the different element files there.
Start with oUF_Lilly or Classic and change what's already there until it looks like what you want.
